For families with juniors, this spring semester marks the best time to visit college campuses at the schools you are considering. The college counseling team at Galin has guided thousands of families through the college search, and these are our top tips when it comes to planning visits!
Visit a variety:
When we make initial lists of college suggestions to students, we try to include a little bit of variety. For a student who isn’t sure if they want a large university or a small college, we might suggest some of both (and even some in-between). For a student who isn’t sure what type of campus setting they want, we would suggest some urban, some suburban, and some rural. When you plan visits, try to see a variety of different colleges. This helps you to see the contrasts among different types of schools and to better discern what types of schools are a fit for you.
Plan deliberately:
Our team shares a belief that “there is no such thing as a bad college visit.” What we mean is that pretty much any exposure to college campuses provides helpful context you can use to solidify your criteria in the college search. But some visit experiences can be more meaningful than others. For example, a visit where you get to participate in an admission interview, meet with a student, or engage with a professor would be much more valuable than simply walking around a campus and looking at the buildings. So when you sign up for tours or information sessions at colleges, think about whether there are certain people you want to meet with on campus – athletics coaches, or maybe alumni from your high school who attend – and build those conversations into your visits, too!
Don’t focus on reach schools:
One of the best pieces of advice we can give is to ensure that you are visiting colleges to which you have a reasonable chance of being admitted. Falling in love with a college where you are very unlikely to be admitted can sour your college search and application process. There are thousands of excellent schools in the U.S. and elsewhere, and many of them are probably accessible to you! Work with your counselor to get a sense of which schools are in your range in terms of admission, and try to focus your visits on those schools, rather than on the super-reaches. Finally, remember that visits are one of the best ways to show your interest in a college – and while the most selective colleges typically don’t care about tracking your interest, many others do!
Take purposeful notes:
Trust us: When you visit multiple colleges in a matter of days, it can be very easy for them to blend together in your brain! One way to ensure that you remember the important tidbits you pick up from college visits is to take notes as you go along. There is a lot of information in the visits, and it can be hard to determine what’s important. Try to record what you liked, didn’t like, and in what ways the school is or is not a fit for you and your goals. Also, as you tour more schools, you will begin to develop more of an ability to note the truly distinguishing aspects of each college you visit!
